OGC Key Personnel Archive - 1979-1981

Former General Counsel Joan Z. Bernstein

General Counsel, DHEW, 1979-1981

Yale Law School, 1951University of Wisconsin, 1948

Nominated by President Jimmy CarterServed Under Secretary Patricia Robert Harris

Joan Bernstein was nominated by President Carter to serve as the General Counsel of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. During her tenure at the Department, she was responsible for issuing a set of regulations giving affect to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited gender discrimination in colleges and universities.

Prior to being nominated for General Counsel of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Ms. Bernstein served as General Counsel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1977 to 1979. Bernstein also served at the Federal Trade Commission for seven years where she was Director of Consumer Protection. From 1985 to 1990, Bernstein was the General Counsel of Chemical Waste Management, the nation's largest hazardous waste company as well as Senior Vice President of Waste Management Inc., the parent company where she developed the environmental compliance and ethics program at the company.

Ms. Bernstein has been recognized as a spokesperson on consumer and environmental and health and safety issues. She has received several awards, including the Good Housekeeping Award, the National Consumer League Trumpeter Award and an Excellence in Government Service Award from the National Association of Women Executives in State Government.

Currently Ms. Bernstein practices law at the Washington D.C. office of Bryan Cave focusing on trade regulation.